March 1, 2009: Hiding at Home

This morning was our one chance to really sleep in all week and we really appreciated it.  It was almost noon by the time that I pulled myself out of bed.  Considering that it was pushing three when I finally got off to sleep that is only nine hours of sleep and with Oreo and Liesl both getting us up during the night it really just comes out to a more or less normal night of sleep.  It just seems dramatic when you say that you slept in until noon.

Dominica and I have nothing at all scheduled today so we are taking the day to just relax.  We entrenched ourselves in the living room with Liesl and Oreo and did our best to do pretty much nothing all day.

I worked on the continuing struggle of getting Linux (Red Hat) to integrate with Active Directory running on Windows.  That is always a big pain no matter how you attempt to do it.  Today I am learning about installing LikeWise Open which is basically a large package of a bunch of standard Linux components all set up to work together to handle AD integration with ease (in the same way that Zimbra packages a bunch of products to make email work in the same way.)

LikeWise ended up being a total breeze to install but doesn’t completely meet my needs so I ended up installing it to give myself some time to consider the alternatives and to think of the limitations or workarounds that may apply.  After a lot of research into methods using WinBind, Microsoft’s UNIX AD Extensions and more it does look as though the LikeWise approach is probably the way to go but I am still not one hundred percent sold.  I wish that I could do some simple ID mapping to make the two really work well together.  I am also experiencing some bizarre home directory behaviour that seems to go against the stated behaviour in the LikeWise documentation so I need to look into that more as well.

Most likely what is going to have to occur is a manual UNIX GID migration to match Windows.  That will be a pain but I think that it will work fine and the home directory problem is something around which I can work without too much of a hassle.  I really want to get all logins everywhere to authenticate to a single backend instead of having one system for email, one for desktops, one for UNIX, one for websites, etc.  That is far too much to remember.

Dominica got the chance to do one of her Linux Administration classes today.  That completed her seventh of eleven classes in this module that she is doing.

We watched a bit of Netflix OnDemand today.  Mostly Murder She Wrote and “The Seeds of Death” episode of Doctor Who from like 1967.  It is one of the old, awful black and white (shades of grey) episodes that was likely pulled from BetaMax because the BBC lost the original.  It was a six part episode.  All of those episodes are so cheesy but they are still fun.  I can’t wait until we work up to the mid-seventies and the eighties.  Those are the episodes that I really liked growing up.

Around eleven I got paged out.  Not for something quick either.  I had to hop right on to a conference call that lasted for quite a long time.  Of course the day could not go by without me having to work.  But we really need the overtime these days so I really cannot complain.  It is quite the blessing to be able to book another couple of hours after Liesl had already gone to bed.  I am not missing any baby bonding time and I still get paid.

When I started on the late conference call it was still clear outside.  Only a few flakes of snow were beginning to drift down although Katie had reported from South Jersey that they were getting a blizzard already.  By the time that I was wrapping things up long past midnight I took Oreo out for a late walk and discovered that there was an inch or two of snow already built up!  The rumor is that we can expect to see as much as thirteen inches by morning.  Everyone is already talking about working from home tomorrow.

One of the guys working with us on the phone conference was working from his car and actually had it catch fire and burn up while he was on the phone.  He dropped off of the call suddenly and never got back to us.  It turns out that he had left his BlackBerry in the car and it burned up with the car.  He managed to call back from the ambulance while on oxygen to let us know what had happened.  He was expecting to have to go to the ER to be checked out.  It did not seem like a matter for any serious concern, but it did lend a bit of excitement to the late night conference call.

Well I get to book a few hours even if I did end up missing out on watching Johnny Be Good with Dominica.  She ended up going to bed without me since I was stuck working so late.  It was around one in the morning when I was finally able to head off to bed.  Not too bad.  We often don’t get to go to bed until after that.

Good luck dealing with the snow everyone.  Tomorrow is going to be a fun day.  All of the kids are definitely having snow days as are many of the adults!

Here is something interesting: as of last year I have now been blogging for a quarter of my life!  That does not seem possible.  One out of every four years is recorded in SGL.  That does not include any of the “looking back” stuff that I do where I go back and fill in old details either. I have not had a chance to do very much of that but I hope to get to that more in the future.  That is harder to do because I really need a list of dates of when things occurred to know when to write about things.

Linux Active Directory Integration with LikeWise Open

I downloaded the latest RPM package (for Red Hat, Suse, CentOS and Fedora) from the LikeWise web site (you need to register before starting your download.)  I downloaded the RPM package to the /tmp directory.  The version that I am testing is the Winter 2009 Edition.

Warning: LikeWise modifies many configuration files and its uninstall routine does not replace these.  Installing LikeWise and then uninstalling again will likely cause you to lose the ability to log back in to your machine.  Treat modifying authentication systems with the utmost care.

The RPM download still uses a script so you will need to add execute permissions.

chmod a+x LikewiseIdentityServiceOpen-5.1.0.5220-linux-x86_64-rpm.sh

./LikewiseIdentityServiceOpen-5.1.0.5220-linux-x86_64-rpm.sh

The package steps you through the installation program.  You will need to accept the license as there are actually several packages, covered under various licenses, that need to be installed to support LikeWise.  If you are installing on an AMD64 platform then you will be questioned as to whether or not you want to install 32-bit support libraries.  Unless you really know what you need just select the “auto” option.  After that, the installation will take care of itself.

If you use SELinux like you should, you will need to turn this off during the configuration.

setenforce Permissive

Then we can join the Linux machine to the Active Directory domain.

/opt/likewise/bin/domainjoin-cli join exampledomain.com domainadminuser

At this point basic authentication is already working.  You will need to make some changes to your setup if you have existing accounts as well, but we can address that later.

Test your login:

ssh -l exampledomain\\username linuxhostname

Once you are all set do not forget to turn SELinux back on.

setenforce Enforcing

The big caveat with using LikeWise Open for your Unix to AD integration needs is that there is no Windows to UNIX GID/UID mapping so your UNIX (Linux, Solaris, Mac OSX, etc.) machines are stuck using Windows IDs.  This is not necessarily the end of the world depending on your environmental needs but it can be quite a pain if you are introducing AD into a large, established Unix environment.  LikeWise Enterprise does not suffer from this limitation, but it is obviously not free.

February 28, 2009: The End of February

It took me a few minutes this morning when the alarm went off to figure out what was even going on.  I was really tired and did not want to get up at all.  I did manage to get between five and a half and six hours of sleep but I was still feeling pretty tired.

I got to the work for the office just before nine.  I am very glad that I was at least able to sleep in as late as I did.  There was a bit of work for me today so I got right to it.

Dominica and Liesl did not sleep in very long.  They were up around ten and came down to the living room.  Oreo had gotten up with me and spent much of the morning moving from one part of the house to another.  He was very restless today.

I ended up working until after one in the afternoon.  Never a real break for me.  Then I showered and before two Dominica went out to do some shopping.  She went to the grocery store and then on to A.C. Moore to pick up much needed modeling supplies.  She was gone for about two hours.

No sooner was Dominica out shopping than I got paged back to work so I had to work for another hour or more.  Getting paged out every time I am watching Liesl makes it very hard to take care of her.

This evening we watched a few episodes of Murder She Wrote and then watched Journey to the Center of the Earth on BluRay.  Journey was cute and had some good people in it but was very silly.  In some theaters it was shown in 3D and a lot of the show was cheesy computer graphics just for effect.  We enjoyed the movie though and neither of us have ever read the book.  The movie is not based directly on the book but is more of a sequel than anything else.  Both Dominica and I were thinking that we should read it as it is a classic.  So I picked it up from Audible.

Here is something interesting – the nation of Iceland has a population roughly identical to the population of the greater Utica, New York area!  It is hard to believe that there is a country with so much land and a population so small.  It is amazing how much larger the state of New York is in population than Iceland.  Iceland is about a third the size of the population of Monroe or Erie counties.  Roughly ten times the population of Wyoming County.

We actually managed to relax a bit this evening which was very nice.  I spent a lot of the evening working on getting SpiceWorks completely set up and working the way that I wanted it to do.  I recently moved from SpiceWorks 3.5 to 3.6 and am finding it to be working much better for me now.  I have it authenticating to Active Directory now as well.  I have also gone through and done everything that I needed to hit 100% on my SpiceMeter.

There are several features desperately needed yet in SpiceWorks like Solaris compatibility (it falsely reports data from Solaris boxes), Active Directory for all users not just Help Desk users and SSL security instead of open HTTP only.  Progress is being made, though, and SpiceWorks is a pretty nice product for small shops.  Each release has made some good progress over the last one.  I look forward to seeing what they do with it in the future.  The system also pretty slow but they are actively working on the speed issues.  The system is built on Ruby which is very cool.

We were pretty worn out by the end of the evening and went to bed around midnight.  At least that is when we tried to go to bed.  Anytime that I am really tired and looking to get to bed is always the time that Oreo decides that he not only needs to go outside for a walk but decides that he needs to do so twice in a row giving me just enough time in between to take off his harness and leach, my shoes, jacket, etc. so that we have to go through it all again.

Tomorrow I have no work scheduled and we do not have to travel anywhere.  We should be able to relax some tomorrow.

Third Party Hard Drive for HP Proliant DL385 G5

This document applies directly to the Hewlett Packard Proliant DL385 G2 and DL385 G5 servers which share a physical chassis.  To the best of my knowledge, this will also apply to the DL585 G2 and DL585 G5 which should share an eight bay drive cage with their 3xx series cousins.  I also believe that this applies to the Intel based DL380 G5 as well as the DL580 G5.  (The DL380 G4 and the DL580 G4 use different drive configurations as does the DL385 G5p.)

When buying a hot-swap SAS or SATA 2.5″ hard drive for use in your new HP DL385 G5 you can acquire them directly from HP with the drive carrier (or sled, caddy) already attached.  This is the easiest method.  If you are like me and prefer to select your own drives from third party makers (in my case, I want to use high performance Seagate drives) then you must purchase your hot swap drive sleds separately.  Finding the correct part number from HP can be quite a hassle.  Even calling them for support can be tricky as almost no one buys this part directly.

I have already done the legwork to find the correct part number and have purchased and tested this part to be sure that it is correct.  The part that you need to purchase is HP Part Number: 378343-002.  This part is generally priced around $50 USD.  You will need eight of them to fully populate the DL385 G5 drive housing but you can use them individually as well, or course.

Beware of shops attempting to sell you a much lower cost alternative to this part number.  Quite often the lower cost part is actually a drive blank.  A drive blank is simply a plastic air dam that corrects airflow through the server chassis when a drive is not present.  Seven of these drive blanks should ship with your DL385 G5 when it is new.  They are readily available and very inexpensive but, mostly, useless.

If you need to reach HP’s Parts Store directly you can call them at (800) 227-8164 in the US.

February 27, 2009: A Very Long Friday

It’s Friday.  Oh is it every Friday.

The weather is great today.  Heavily overcast but warm.  Temperatures in mid-fifties for a change.  Very nice.

I was dreading weighing in this morning on the Wii after this week.  I avoided weighing in for several days because of the bad eating habits around my birthday.  I wanted to give the cupcakes and wine time to wear off although for a late night snack last night I treated myself to two bagels with lox and cream cheese which I thought was going to be a killer this morning.  But, fortunately, the week of bad eating only retarded my weight loss and did not actually stop it.  So my weigh in this morning had me, just barely, at a new low weight since having started the diet several weeks ago.

Today was incredibly busy.  No one big item, again just like it has been all week, just a ton of little things that just keep going on and driving me crazy.  I am quite looking forward to the weekend.

I was on the phone for the bulk of the day.  The phone just rang and rang all day.  I was really tired of talking on the phone by the time that the end of the day rolled around.

Lunch was quite short and late today.  I didn’t get a chance to pull myself away to go to lunch until about twenty after one and then I was back at my desk at a quarter until two and I took Oreo on his walk in between.  So you can extrapolate how short my time to eat and relax was.

At four Dominica took Oreo to the Peekskill Animal Hospital for a well visit.  The only time that Oreo has been to his vet here in Peekskill was when he was very sick and his doctor has never seen him when he was healthy, happy and perky so we wanted him to get to see him and start to acculumate good baseline data from which to judge future issues.  He was very happy to see Oreo doing so well and now has a much better impression of what he is like and feels that he is much younger than he thought in his initial assessment.

Oreo’s eyesight is also better than we had been worried that it was.  He definitely had cataracts but they are not advancing like we were worried that they may be.  So everything is okay there.  Surgery likely in a few years but not anytime soon unless something happens to dramatically change the situation.

The stock market took another massive beating in the US and European markets again today.  The S&P 500 is at its twelve year low today.  Ouch.  Two big factors hitting us today.  The first is that the US government has bought a thirty-six percent stake in Citi which seriously diluted the investors’ shares and the price of Citi stock came tumbling down ending around $1.46.  To put that into perspective the stock price was $40 in 1977 and was in the high thirties in 2006!  It is practically worthless today sending everyone into a panic about bank nationalization.

The other big factor is a new report released detailing the collapse of the European economy painting an extremely dark picture for them.  In the US our big concern is our recent slip from a dragging economic slowdown into recession but in much of Europe their concern is leaving recession behind as they sink into a full-fledged depression.  Things could get quite bad before we see things getting better.

It’s hard not to be depressed in an economy like this when you are constantly being bombarded with one item of bad news after another and when you see the value of your investments and retirement plans reduced to almost nothing.  I know that, in reality, the economic climate today is very good for us in the long run because of the ages that Dominica and I are now but the general depression going on is very overwhelming.  I am glad that I don’t see people on a daily basis who are complaining, or worse yet panicking, about the financial condition of the country or it would be really hard.

I am always torn between feeling bad because our bank accounts are dwindling and being excited because our long-term financial prospects keep improving.  If I step back and look at the big picture this is all great for us, but when you are too close to the situation it can be tough.  So many people with their crazy theories about how this recession is, for some crazy reason, so much different than any other as if we aren’t on a normal cycle and as if this was not expected.

Work for the office wrapped up at a surprisingly good time today considering how busy I was all day long.  I thought that I was going to have to do a lot of work tonight but it was not all that bad.  Tomorrow morning I have to work again as I normally do but because the work for tomorrow is pretty light and because the team in Bahrain are now able to work from home we are able to have some additional flexibility in the schedule so we are not starting until nine in the morning rather than the usual eight or earlier.

Around eight I was able to finally get away from the office for a little while but not entirely.  I worked relatively steadily until around ten thirty.  Then I was able to go upstairs and spend several hours with Dominica watching the British series MI-5 from 2002 and 2003.  I came in just as Dominica was watching the last episode of the first season of the show.  So I got to see the cliffhanger and the first bit of the second season.  Not a bad show.

I was hoping to have been able to have gone to bed at a reasonable time tonight, but I should know better than to even think that that might happen on a Friday night.  I was working with the datacenters tonight to do some server hardware maintenance work.  The work stated at eight which forces it to go pretty late and, as usually happens, it overlaps with a shift change at the datacenter making things go even later as projects get handed off from one team to another.

So at two in the morning I ended up having to do checkouts when I had deemed that it was so late that things really could not wait any longer.  These servers absolutely have to be up and running long before morning and two in the morning here is seven in the morning in London so we are already pushing the time envelope.

So I did not get a chance to get to go to bed until around two thirty in the morning.  Saturdays are actually one of my most exhausting days because Friday nights are my latest night working and Saturday mornings I normally have to get up extra early or, in the case, at least only at a normal work day time.

While I was stuck being up so late I took the opportunity to finally do some documentation work that needed my attention during the day but had gotten skipped because I was so busy.

Tomorrow we are hoping that at some point, probably around late morning, that Dominica will get a little bit of free time to make a run to A.C. Moore or Michael’s, whichever it is that we have around here, to do some shopping.  We need some paint and other modeling supplies and she is anxious to be able to get started on the buildings that we have for our model railroad.  We also need to make a trip to Home Depot to get a 3’x6′ cut of plywood on which to put the layout so that it is sturdy enough to be moved around.